The founding phase is complete: the European Organ-on-Chip Society (EUROoCS) is now welcoming members to join. The annual conference, held this year in Graz (Austria), saw launch of the community website and the start of its availability as an information resource. (more…)

On the 28th of March representatives from the ECSEL JU and IMI Joint undertakings met at their headquarters in Brussels to discuss topics of mutual interest. ECSEL Joint Undertaking is public-private partnership, funding innovation in electronic components and systems, while IMI is funding health research and innovation.

The representatives are highly interested in new technologies that can improve the efficiency of drug development. One of these is Organs-on-Chip technology. The progress of these technologies and their role in healthcare is closely monitored by IMI and ECSEL.For the ORCHID representatives at the meeting it was a great opportunity to present the ORCHID interim report to Bert de Colvenaer (CEO of ECSEL) and Pierre Meulien (executive director of IMI).

Following up on the ORCHID Vision workshop, the ORCHID Strategy workshop was held in Leiden, the Netherlands on 17 January 2019. 32 experts from academia, innovation hubs, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry, patient organizations, ethics school, biotech companies and regulatory agencies attended the workshop. They represented developers, end users and regulators in the Organ-on-Chip (OoC) field in Europe. The workshop was organized by Janny van den Eijnden-van Raaij from hDMT (work package leader Roadmap) and chaired by Christine Mummery from LUMC (coordinator). (more…)

Within the ORCHID project, the main goal is to create a roadmap for organ-on-chip technology and to build a network of all relevant stakeholders in this promising innovative field.

By identifying you as a stakeholder, we would like to draw your attention concerning the training needs of the next generation of researchers and technicians in the Organ-on-a-chip field. We invite you to give us your opinion on this by answering this 15 minute questionnaire.

Feel free to disseminate this questionnaire within your network of interested researchers in universities, research institutes, industries, hospitals and regulatory bodies so that they could share their views too. Thank you very much for your contribution.

The ORCHID team was proud to present the first interim roadmap report entitled: ‘Organ-on-Chip in Development: Towards a European roadmap for Organ-on-Chip’ during the International Organ-on-Chip Symposium on November 8-9 2018 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

This report surveys the current landscape in the research, development, applications and market opportunities for Organ-on-Chip devices to establish the pillars of a European OoC ecosystem. Based on a bibliometric study, a market analysis, expert interviews, and panel discussions held at the ORCHID Vision Workshop (Stuttgart, 23 May 2018), this report outlines presently unmet needs, key challenges, barriers and perspectives of the field, and finally proposes recommendations towards the definition of a European roadmap that could render OoC systems (OoCs) realistic models of human (patho)physiology in the near future. For a the report click here.

During the next ORCHID phase we will specify the goals and milestones of the roadmap and define the underlying pathways to reach these goals. For that reason we will organize another ORCHID workshop, the ORCHID Strategy Workshop, and invite a small group of experts from academia, industry, patient organizations, regulatory bodies and medical centers (on invitation only).

November 30, 2018 in Brussels. The ORCHID team went to Brussels for the review meeting of the project. The ORCHID partners appreciated the useful discussions with the review committee and will take on board the suggestions and comments to achieve our goals during the next phase.

Over 180 participants from 12 different countries joined the third International Organ-on-Chip Symposium (IOOCS18) held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on 8 and 9 November 2018. This year IOOCS18 was organized by NOCI, Eindhoven University of Technology and hDMT. No less than 55 posters of high quality were presented which ensured lively discussions between the participants.

The new European Organ-on-Chip Society (EUROoCS) was officially launched at the third International Organ-on-Chip Symposium, held on 8 and 9 November 2018 at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Imec, one of the partners of the ORCHID project, has released a cutting-edge high-density neural probe called Neuropixels. This leading device has almost a thousand electrodes, 384 recording channels on a single shank and provides an unprecedented resolution for mapping brain activity. Do you want to know more about the technology which may mark a before and an after in the global neuroscience research community? Click here!